The present invention relates generally to a watertight connector and a method of manufacturing the same.
In a conventional connector, terminals made of metal rod-like members are press-fit in through holes formed in a bottom plate of a housing made of an insulating material such as a synthetic resin. In this case, a gap inevitably occurs between the inner wall surface of the through hole and the outer circumference of the terminal, and therefore, it is difficult to maintain a sealing performance between one surface side of the bottom plate from which tip portions of the terminals project to make contact with counterpart connector terminals and the other surface side of the bottom plate from which root portions of the terminals project to make contact with electrical wires or the like of a cable.
For this reason, in the case of a connector requiring cleaning such as a connector used for medical devices, for instance, cleaning liquid, used for cleaning the side of the bottom plate from which the tip portions of the terminals project to contact the counterpart connector terminals, may enter the side of the bottom plate at which the terminals are to be connected to the electrical wires or the like of the cable, and it may have adverse effects such as corrosion of the connecting portions of the root portions of the terminals and the electrical wires or the like, and cracking caused by deterioration.
Also, in a cable including a further linear member such as an optical fiber or the like and electrical wires integrally arranged with the further linear member, the electrical wires, in some cases, are annularly arranged around the centrally arranged further linear member so as to surround the latter. Such a cylindrical connector for connecting the annularly arranged electrical wires is proposed (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication (Kokai) No. S61-237383, for instance).
FIG. 19 is a cross-sectional view of such a conventional cylindrical connector.
In FIG. 19, reference numeral 801 designates a connector terminal, and a plurality of terminals are annularly arranged so as to surround the center axis of the connector. Also, reference numeral 802 designates an elementary portion in which the terminal 801 is fitted, and the elementary portions are integrally connected to a belt-like strip 803. The elementary portions 802 and the strip 803 are made of an elastic plastic and are integrally molded by a molding method such as injection molding or the like. In this case, the elementary portions 802 having a trapezoidal cross-section are arranged in a line and mutually coupled by the linear strip 803. It is to be noted that each terminal 801 is embedded in each elementary portion 802. In addition, a core portion 804 having a cylindrical or polygonal outer surface is integrally connected to one end of the strip 803.
Then, a cylinder as illustrated in the figure is formed by winding the strip 803 around the core portion 804, with the core portion 804 being in the center. In this case, the strip 803 is arranged on the outside of the cylinder, the elementary portions 802 face the inside of the cylinder, and slanted side surfaces of the adjacent elementary portions 802 are brought into contact with each other. The thus formed cylinder is attached inside a metal or plastic bush 805 to obtain a cylindrical connector.